Insurable Interest Canadian Insurance Blog

PartnerRe has appointed André Piché as president of its Canadian Life & Health operations. A seasoned veteran of the life reinsurance industry, Piché has carved out a multifaceted career that includes experience in pricing various types of life and health products, working on new product development, cultivating relationships with client companies, and fulfilling leadership positions. He has been with PartnerRe since 2012. In his most recent role as Chief Business Development Officer, Life & Health, Canada, Piché was credited with driving the grown and profitability of PartnerRe’s Canadian Life & Health business. “He has successfully led our business development resulting in strong client relationships, an increase in PartnerRe’s market position and the development of our portfolio,” said Alan Ryder, CEO of North America Life. In his new position, he will assume overall responsibility for the Canadian Life & Health business, and report to Ryder. “I am confident that under André’s leadership our Canadian business will continue to deliver on our commitments to provide our clients with the reinsurance solutions and service they value and our shareholders with attractive return,” Ryder said. Read the original article at https://www.lifehealthpro.ca/rss/

Staff | May 22, 2020 The Winnipeg Public Service is recommending the reversal of amendments to the City of Winnipeg’s police pension bylaw. The amendments, which took effect April 1, 2020, were the subject of a grievance filed by the Winnipeg Police Association and the Winnipeg Police Senior Officer’s Association in November 2019 after the City of Winnipeg attempted to make alterations to the defined benefit pension plan. The changes included increasing employee contributions from eight per cent to 11.5 per cent and reducing employer contributions from 18.48 per cent to 11.5 per cent, both over a five-year time frame. They also included plans to eliminate police overtime from pensionable income and to require police officers to work longer before receiving their pension benefits, according to an email sent to city councillors in August 2019. Read: Winnipeg Police Association wins pension grievance against City At the end of March, the arbitrator released his decision in the matter, allowing the grievance and stating that the City had breached the collective agreement by passing a bylaw amending the pension benefits of the members and, in particular, excluding overtime from pensionable earnings. The arbitrator further ordered the City from making modifications to the pension plan, except as negotiated by the parties. “The City isn’t challenging the...

Staff | May 22, 2020 The funded status of the Segal Group Inc.’s model multi-employer pension plan fell from 95 per cent to 86 per cent during the first quarter of 2020, according to a new report by the firm. The model’s portfolio is comprised of 55 per cent equities and 45 per cent bonds. Overall, its investments saw dismal performance, with domestic equities measured by the S&P/TSX composite index posting negative 21 per cent returns, U.S. equities measured by the S&P 500 down 12 per cent and international stocks included in the MSCI EAFE index dropping 15 per cent. Domestic fixed income, as measured by the FTSE Canada bond universe, was the only asset class to see gains, posting two per cent. Read: How are pension plan sponsors’ fiduciary duties evolving in the time of coronavirus? The coronavirus pandemic put huge pressure on asset prices during the quarter, but the oil price war that developed between Russia and Saudi Arabia also played a role. With so many Canadians unable to be physically present at work, all industries saw a decline in hours worked. The report noted that decline could affect a MEPP’s costs. “A reduction in the hours worked will affect the plan’s ability to...

Staff | May 22, 2020 People Corp. has appointed Brevan Canning as president, effective May 21. Since joining the organization when it was created in 2017, Canning has held senior management positions across third-party administration, collective benefits consulting and shared services. Most recently, he was executive vice-president and head of benefits solutions. Read: People Corp. acquires Sirius Benefit Plans for $15M “[Canning] has put his innovative leadership style and vast experience to work for all facets of our business and has been instrumental in the fast growth of the People Corporation and in one of the largest companies in benefits management, group retirement, [human resources] consulting and administration plans in Canada,” said Laurie Goldberg, president and chief executive officer, in a press release. Read the full article at BenefitsCanada.com

Kelsey Rolfe | May 22, 2020 Plan sponsors have seen significant decreases in their extended health and dental claims over the past three months, according to new data by Eckler Ltd. While the consultancy’s analysis of its large self-insured clients found plan sponsors saw an up to five per cent increase in extended health claims between February and March 2020, these claims dropped by up to 40 per cent between March and April, as social distancing rules and non-essential business closures took effect. According to Eckler, the initial uptick was due to an increase in prescription drug claims as plan members sought to stock up on their necessary maintenance medications. However, this was offset by a decrease in non-drug claims. Read: Drug plan considerations during the coronavirus pandemic From February to March, dental claims were down between 20 and 30 per cent, and they dropped even further, between 80 and 90 per cent, from March to April. While provinces are beginning to reopen and loosen restrictions, Nick Gubbay, principal in Eckler’s group benefits practice, says he doesn’t expect to see a sudden increase in claims since plan members are likely to still feel wary of in-person interactions. “We don’t think many people will rush back for the services they’ve...

Staff  | May 22, 2020 Sustainable indexes largely outperformed during the first quarter of 2020 amid market turmoil caused by the coronavirus pandemic, according to BlackRock Inc.’s latest sustainability report. “While this short time period is not determinative, it aligns with the resilience we have seen in sustainable strategies during prior downturns,” said the report. The big question for institutional investors remains why these groups of companies suffered less than their peers during these turbulent times. One feature of sustainability is that it appears to correlate with specific traditional factors, such as quality and low volatility, which themselves indicate resilience. Read: 70% of institutional investors expect ESG integration to become standard practice: survey However, the report noted these factors don’t capture every aspect that could make one company more resilient that another. “Analyzing the various sustainability characteristics of companies — and how these characteristics contributed to performance — deepens our understanding of how sustainability reinforces resilience.” Traditional financial accounting standards don’t provide a view of every risk faced by companies, said the report, necessitating the examination of material sustainability characteristics as well. BlackRock delineates these characteristics as descriptors, from talent management to waste management to board effectiveness, using them in the hopes of teasing out...

Staff | May 22, 2020 Shopify Inc. is moving the majority of its employees to permanent work-from-home arrangements and closing its offices until 2021. “Until recently, work happened in the office,” tweeted Tobi Lutke, chief executive officer of Shopify on Thursday. “We’ve always had some people remote, but they used the internet as a bridge to the office. This will reverse now. The future of the office is to act as an on-ramp to the same digital workplace that you can access from your [work-from-home] setup.” Going forward, the company will be digital by default. According to its careers page, Shopify employees will have a home office allowance. Connecting with fellow colleagues will be based on “when the sun’s up for everyone on your team.” Read: Remote working, distributed workforces could be part of new normal post-coronavirus Lutke said the move would allow the company to recruit talent from around the world that “otherwise couldn’t [work for the company] because of our previous default to proximity.” Shopify follows other technology giants in making the move to work from home a permanent one. Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook Inc., said on a livestream on Thursday that as many as 50 per cent of the company’s employees could...

When you need to file an ERISA disability lawsuit because of a disability, you have two avenues you can take: Settlement or litigation. The two important things to know before you make that decision are that you usually get less if you settle, and litigation could take several years if you or the insurance company…

Staff | May 22, 2020 Canadians workers are proving resilient in the face of the hardships caused by the coronavirus pandemic, according to a report by the Environics Institute for Survey Research in partnership with the Future Skills Centre and Ryerson University’s Diversity Institute. Nearly two-thirds (63 per cent) of Canadians said they feel confident in their abilities after the pandemic was declared, up from 61 per cent who said the same in an earlier survey. As well, 54 per cent said they feel they could bounce back quickly after hard times, up from 51 per cent before the pandemic. “It is encouraging that Canadian workers felt equally resilient and supported by the social safety net before and after the onset of the pandemic, but many do not feel that support as strongly,” says Andrew Parkin, executive director of the Environics Institute, in a press release. “One of our greatest challenges remains getting help to those who need it the most.” Read: 56% of Canadians say coronavirus negatively impacting mental health: survey The survey found workers feel less well-supported through employer-delivered skills training. Half (51 per cent) of workers said they’ve had no such training in the last five years, with low-income workers (42 per cent) less...

New SMA Blog by Mark Breading, Partner, Strategy Meets Action — P&C insurers are staying the course when it comes to their original digital and technology plans and investments for 2020. Many insurers report no changes to their plans, with some reshaping and a few accelerating, but very few pausing or retrenching. These are the big themes in SMA’s new research report, P&C Tech Plans in the COVID-19 Era: SMA Market Pulse Insights. 2021 plans may paint an entirely different picture, but for now, P&C insurers are moving full steam ahead. As might be expected, the plans vary significantly by line of business. Commercial lines insurers are much more cautious than their personal lines counterparts, chiefly due to the larger negative impact of the pandemic. Still, our SMA market pulse survey of insurance executives confirmed what we have been hearing from our clients: 95% of personal lines insurers are moving forward with their overall technology plans and investments, with only 5% retrenching. 75% of commercial lines insurers are moving forward with their overall technology plans and investments, with 25% retrenching or pausing. Our survey also showed that many of the insurers that are moving forward are reshaping and reprioritizing projects...